Children's Stories

Almaru (2007) a science fiction story forthcoming in an anthology from Penguin India. This is the first story I've written
that has to do with cyber-stuff, artificial intelligence and the like. It is set in a somewhat grim future Delhi. It was a lot of fun to write it and I got invaluable help
from my genuine-geek husband in the writing of it.

A Martian Homecoming (2006) a science fiction story published in September 2006 in "Seven Science Fiction Stories," an anthology for teens
published by Scholastic India. It is about a young girl who goes to Mars to join her father in the human settlement there. Her father is
a well-known explorer and a madcap who is on a climb of Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system. One of
the most pleasurable things about writing this story was doing the research on the Red planet and extrapolating to an imagined future.

Waiting for Green (2006) in the Spring 2006 issue of the Indian-American children's magazine
Kahani. This is a fantasy story about a future when there is a water shortage in America and water is rationed. It features an Indian
family in the U.S. who are homeschoolers and also practitioners of the recently discovered art of magic. One of the daughters, however,
possesses no magical abilities whatsoever. How can she help, in a world gone wrong? But then, there are other kinds of magic...

The Shell-Ship (2005) in The Puffin Book of Bedtime Stories, published in India by Penguin India. This is a science fiction story for much
younger readers about a little girl who is frightened of the dark. An unexpected viitor helps her appreciate treasures that only the night
can bring.

The Kite (2004) in the debut issue of Kahani (see link above). An Indian-American girl has just moved to a new house in a new city in
America. She's lonely and unhappy, but one day she sees a kite, dancing as though writing on the sky. The kite string ends in mid-air. Obviously not
an ordinary kind of kite; not an ordinary kind of day either.